Monthly Archives: November 2015

Beth Leidolf is a member of the World Language Department and our AP Spanish Language teacher. She enjoys guiding her students to a fuller appreciation of the Spanish language and culture and loves traveling the world. Beth is also one of our Instructional Coaches here at Illinois Virtual School where she provides leadership and support to her online colleagues.

Besides working at Illinois Virtual School, Beth is a 9-12 instructor at York Community High School in Elmhurst, IL where this year she teaches AP Spanish and Spanish 2 courses. She is a Google Certified Educator as well as a Nationally Board Certified Teacher in World Languages.

Beth can also be found online as @bleidolf67 where she moderates the Twitter #reflectiveteacher online chat and leads others in discussions on best practices and current educational trends. Beth is passionate about breaking down classroom barriers and collaborating with students and teachers outside in cyberspace, making the world a smaller, more connected place!

Favorite Superhero: Batgirl

Favorite food: Mini-powdered sugar donuts

Favorite thing to do when not grading papers: Read a book

Favorite Quote:“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” JFK

Like this:

My adventure with IVS started in September of 2010. I was hired to teach two courses, Art History-Ancient to Classical and Art History-Renaissance to Modern. I have enjoyed getting to broaden my teaching to the online world. I graduated from Eastern Illinois University in 1997 with a K-12 Art Education degree. I currently teach the first two classes I started with, as well as IVS’s two Digital Photography courses.

I also teach art to 6th-12th graders at Prophetstown-Lyndon-Tampico Middle and High Schools in Prophetstown. I am fortunate that I get to have the face to face, everyday interactions with students as well as getting to know my virtual students. I feel like my virtual students like to give me as much as my face to face students do.

During my free time, I enjoy going to amusement parks, water parks, and playing with my two daughters and husband. My oldest daughter, Fiona, is in 7th grade and my youngest, Sonja, is in 3rd. My husband and I have been married for 17 years and often comment to our daughters about the BK (before kids) times, they usually aren’t amused! My girls keep me busy going to sporting events and driving them to their dance and piano lessons.

Top: Dawn Huffstutler and husband, Brock.Bottom: Fiona and Sonja, daughters.Mrs. Huffstutler teaches Art History – Ancient to Classical & Renaissance to Modern – as well as Beginning and Advanced Digital Photography.

Like this:

I have been teaching Music Appreciation with IVS since 2012, not long after my arrival in Illinois. I moved to the Chicago suburbs in 2011 from Connecticut, where we lived for 9 years. Prior to that, we lived in the Dallas, Texas suburbs and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where I grew up. My household consists of my husband, my son and daughter, my mother, my 33-year-old parrot, and multiple fish tanks.

In addition to teaching at IVS, I have several private violin, viola, cello, and piano students who come to my house for weekly lessons. I’m also an active volunteer at my children’s schools and play the violin in a local community orchestra.

Over the past year, I have added endorsements in K-12 Gifted Education and Middle School Language Arts to my teaching license. I also became a certified Quality Matters K-12 Course Reviewer and K-12 Publisher Course Reviewer, and completed my first official QM course review in October.

My favorite part of teaching at IVS is the opportunity to work with and get to know students throughout the state of Illinois. I also really appreciate the flexibility of online learning, because it makes it that much easier to tailor the coursework to my students and their individual needs and schedules.

Meta

About IVS

Illinois Virtual School is a supplemental online program that operates in partnership with public, private, and home schools to offer educational opportunities to middle and high school students to reach their learning potential.

IVS does not grant credit for courses taken, but through its partnerships with schools, allows students to earn credit from their local school for successfully completed IVS courses.

Illinois Virtual School is an Illinois State Board of Education program
administered by Peoria County ROE 48. IVS is recognized by the College Board and NCAA.